Individuals new to the web business without much exposure to the hosting technology will find using the services of a shared hosting provider ideal. Though there are some limitations in this type of hosting services it is very popular especially among the small businesses.
What is Shared Hosting?
The resources in a powerful physical server in a shared hosting are divided among numerous users. Each user gets a limited share of resources like FTP and email accounts and databases but share resources like CPU, storage, RAM amongst themselves. Since the resources are shared, it splits all the expenses incurred also and thus makes it the most affordable hosting platform.
The shared hosting provider understand that many individuals are dependent on their services for the success of their websites and provide the best of infrastructure and extend the maximum support that every new business expects. Almost every web hosting provider offers shared hosting and are in competition with one another to provide the most beneficial aspects and services while keeping their plans affordable and attractive. Some of the features generally offered include
- The server is housed in high-end data centers
- Maximum uptime and prompt and efficient round the clock technical support
- Free set-up
- Choice of either Windows or Linux operating system
- Money back guarantee.
The shared hosting provider services are suitable for:
- Start-ups that are low on budget
- Businesses not expecting much traffic
- Businesses who need limited email accounts
- Not sure of their future requirements.
- Small business that are location specific
It would be appropriate to mention that shared hosting is not preferable for:
- e-commerce websites
- a growing website that has increasing traffic
- websites that need security for their sensitive operations
- corporate websites
- government bodies, banks and financial institutions.
Benefits to the Customers:
The key benefits that the clients get to enjoy with the services of a shared hosting provider include:
- Affordability: Shared hosting is very cost-effective. Since the resources are shared among multiple users, the investment costs too are shared by the users making all the plans being reasonably priced.
- No maintenance responsibility: The hosts generally do the server maintenance and monitoring giving the users a few more advantages. It allows their technical team to focus on newer business applications. Those who are not technically competent too can manage without the need to hire any technically qualified personnel.
- Technical support: Since the host has its own team monitoring the server technical issues are attended to immediately.
- Migrate to higher platform: The shared hosting customers can easily upgrade to a higher platform of VPS or dedicated hosting as and when they want or finding the restricted features a little hindrance for better business performance.
Since there are plenty of shared hosting providers in the market, the customers have to look for feature rich plans, affordable with no compromise on services. The key factors to be considered are the bandwidth and storage allowed, backup service efficiency, security and uptime assurance and the promptness of the customer support team.